{"id":177331,"date":"2025-09-29T09:12:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T09:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/177331\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T09:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T09:12:12","slug":"alberta-rcmp-say-missing-6-year-old-boy-has-less-than-5-chance-of-survival-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/177331\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta RCMP say missing 6-year-old boy has less than 5% chance of survival &#8211; National"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Authorities in <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/alberta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alberta<\/a> said Sunday that <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/darius-macdougall\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Darius Macdougall<\/a>, a six-year-old boy who went missing one week ago while on a walk with family members in the Crowsnest Pass in southwest Alberta, has not been found.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758298208_703_70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>During a press conference on Sunday afternoon, RCMP Cpl. Gina Slaney stated that the agency met with Macdougall\u2019s family this morning to discuss \u201csurvivability,\u201d given the nature of the \u201cterrain, exposure to the elements, and the amount of time that this search has gone on,\u201d since the boy disappeared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the point we are at, the survivability is less than five per cent,\u201d Slaney said, adding that specific search tactics are changing as efforts to locate Macdougall continue.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tDarius Macdougall, 6, of Lethbridge, Alta., is shown in this RCMP missing person handout photo.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tTHE CANADIAN PRESS\/Handout &#8211; RCMP (Mandatory Credit)\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Adam Kennedy from Search and Rescue Alberta (SAR) said, \u201cGiven this unfortunate stage of the search, some tactics will be changed and ground search methods will be adjusted to reflect this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAdditionally, there will be changes to tactics for previously engaged assets, such as air assets using infrared technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758298209_554_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get the day&#8217;s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n<p>Approximately 200 personnel were on the scene on Sunday, including around 100 SAR volunteers, as well as surface and underwater search assets, which were also present to re-search areas covered earlier, Kennedy said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnytime decisions like this have to be made and that consideration is taken, there are multiple different factors that go into it,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Alberta missing child: \u2018No plans to scale back\u2019 on search for 6-year-old Darius Macdougall, SAR says'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUN_MISSING_ALBERTA_BOY_SITE_THUMB_280925.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:42<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta missing child: \u2018No plans to scale back\u2019 on search for 6-year-old Darius Macdougall, SAR says\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\tPrevious Video<\/p>\n<p>\t\tNext Video<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11454147\/donald-trump-orders-troops-to-portland-oregon\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1759137132_459_f02e2c50bf2c33d379102174d840a9e09b28bd34fb250a59dcdce79796209e5b_b9e986.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tTrump orders U.S. troops to Portland, Oregon, authorizes \u2018full force\u2019\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11450528\/westjet-new-seats-no-recline\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1759137132_509_CP91446.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tReclining on your next WestJet flight may mean having to upgrade seats\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Those factors, he added, include Darius\u2019 health status when he went missing, the local terrain, the potential impact of weather and a major statistical analysis.<\/p>\n<p>Rescue teams analyzed thousands of data points from of other search cases, particularly those with similarities to Macdougall\u2019s, to determine his chances of survival.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Due to Macdougall\u2019s reported autism, authorities also said they have fine-tuned their search to cater to neurodivergence, including not using loud noises inside the search area because they may scare him away.<\/p>\n<p>Officials are also of the understanding that he is attracted to flashing lights and certain sounds, including his favourite song.<\/p>\n<p>Slaney said the search for Macdougall is still underway and that experts will continue to evaluate how resources are allocated.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Canada<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authorities in Alberta said Sunday that Darius Macdougall, a six-year-old boy who went missing one week ago while&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84151,48,85470,43,44,51050,41,39,42,40,519],"class_list":{"0":"post-177331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-alberta-search-and-rescue","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-darius-macdougall","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-search-and-rescue","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories","18":"tag-trending"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}